[Editor's Note: This is the first in a three-part series covering different aspects of the City of Lansing's Master Plan update.]
A few things have changed since the
City of Lansing last formulated a Master Plan—back when Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder were topping the charts with a song about racial harmony.
But one change in particular could reshape the way Lansing looks, feels and grows over the next 50 years.
Talent has emerged as the key driver of a
New Economy. Talented people are mobile, and they are heading in droves to places with a high quality of life—walkable urban places and abundant outdoor assets.
If you doubt it, just check out our companion piece on young entrepreneur
Nicholas Chilenko. Or read our interview last week with
Christopher Leinberger, developer and visiting fellow with the Brookings Institution. Or talk to local business leaders like Neogen's
Jim Hebert, Cooley Law School's
Don LeDuc or
local real estate agents and
urban developers like Pat Gillespie.
Now is a great time for Michigan's Capital City to chart its future growth and development with a new, revamped Master Plan. And the city is spending $450,000 through next year on the
Design Lansing project.
"With everything that's underway, there's probably no better time to update our Master Plan," says Bob Johnson, director of planning and neighborhood development for the City of Lansing.
"The industrial based economy that we've enjoyed for 100 years is shifting right before our eyes in a rapid pace, and the world is changing in so many other ways. We know Michigan and Lansing will change with it."
New Economy, Old UrbanismJohn Melcher, associate director of the
Center for Community and Economic Development at Michigan State University (MSU), has worked with city officials in the organizational stages of the Master Plan.
Melcher would like the city to move away from what he considers antiquated zoning codes. Specifically, the idea that residential, commercial and industrial property cannot exist in the same building has to be scrapped.
"You see this in a lot of other cities—commercial property on the ground floor and residential apartments and condos on the upper floors of a building," he says. "And then you can even mix in industrial, because they are no longer running a stamping plant, but instead they are writing code for software."
City officials are also working to ensure the Master Plan is more than a blueprint that's shelved and forgotten. Johnson cites master plans from the 1930s and 1940s that offered ambitious plans but were ignored as past city officials allowed expediency and cost-saving to trump thoughtful planning.
"We've pulled out plans from 60 years ago that show plans to bury all the city's power lines. People see this and can't believe we failed to adhere to this plan," Johnson says. "The focus now is to create a Master Plan that is an evolving and breathing document that will help us build a region for the future."
Planning for Prosperity Johnson stresses that the city is positioned for long-term prosperity.
"We have state government. We have
Michigan State right next door. We have
two hospitals. Generally, we have the employment generators that are going to be with us," he says. "Granted, it's going through a rough time right now, especially in terms of the automobile industry, but we are still well positioned for the future."
In pulling together a new vision for the city's development, Melcher stresses three keys for the city to consider.
First, the process has to be inclusive. "A lot of our neighborhoods are very interested in becoming part of the process. They want to help set up the process and have a say in some of the details," he says. "There has to be very healthy community participation."
Next, turf battles have to yield to concerns over the prosperity of the region. "There has to be communication and cooperation across jurisdictional lines," Melcher says. "For too long, people have been entrenched in their townships and that has to change for this region to advance."
He emphasizes that regional leaders must recognize that in an increasingly globalized economy the competition for jobs and capital will no longer pit Lansing against Flint and Detroit. Instead, the city must compete with the likes of Alabama, Germany and India. "The key for Lansing and the region as a whole is to position itself to compete on this global scale."
Finally, Melcher says the Master Plan should focus on nodes of transportation, commerce and culture that will enhance the city's social capital.
"Social fabric, or what some people call
social capital, is how people connect to one another," he says. "It's crucial for healthy communities to create good attitudes about where people live and work and to have places where people can connect to one another."
He stresses that social capital is not an esoteric concept reserved for graduate school lectures. Social scientists have produced quantitative tools to measure social capital and linked it to higher property values.
"Where people feel more attached to their neighborhood and have a greater sense of well being, it makes them have less tendency to want to move away and property values increase," Melcher says. And rising property values are also often linked to lower crime rates and other desirable socioeconomic indicators.
Transportation and Talent A primary focus of the revised plan will be transportation, mainly focused on moving away from the automobile-dominated
plans of the past.
"We're looking at transportation alternatives, especially after what we saw last year with gas prices," Johnson says. "That means bicycle lanes and other non-motorized infrastructure, as well as surface cable cars, street cars and light rail that connect the state of Michigan and the Midwest region."
They'd like to create a city where residents don't have to burn fossil fuels for every trip outside the house.
"How far do you have to travel to get basic staples?" says Bill Rieske, who works in the city's planning office. "Do you have to get in your car every time you want to go get milk and food?"
Melcher suggests the plan move more parking spots to the back of buildings, or in underground garages to create a new, more walkable atmosphere that attracts the young professionals who are key to generating jobs in a knowledge-based economy.
The city will use a team of consultants to import the institutional knowledge required for a successful Master Plan. Johnson says the nearly half-million dollars and hundreds of staff hours is critical for the city's future.
"There are other things you can spend money on, but this is an investment so we can grow Lansing," Johnson says.
To receive Capital Gains free every week, click here.Both Chris Leinberger and Pat Gillespie will be speaking at the
2009 Michigan Land and Prosperity Summit on April 15 at the Lansing Center.
Bryan Mitchell is a freelance writer, aspiring screenwriter and bowls a 145 average.
Brad Garmon is Editor-in-Chief at Capital Gains.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Some of the old city plans over the years
John Melcher of the Center for Community & Economic Development
Mixed Use developments like the Stadium District combine residential and commercial
Lansing’s neighborhoods
Bill Rieske with the city’s planning office
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie